The present disclosure relates to a toner conveying device for conveying toner, and an image forming apparatus.
Generally, in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus such as a copier, printer or facsimile, an electrostatic latent image formed on an image carrier such as a photoconductor drum is visualized with developer (toner) in a developing device, and the toner image is transferred to a recording medium. In this process, toner that has not been transferred to the recording medium may remain on the surface of the photoconductor drum. As a result, a cleaning device removes the remaining toner (waste toner) from the surface of the photoconductor drum. The toner removed from the surface of the photoconductor drum is conveyed by a screw as the waste toner, and then recovered in a waste bottle.
Meanwhile, the photoconductor drum, cleaning blade and the like have shorter lives than the image forming apparatus. As a result, these parts are normally provided as a unit that can be installed in the apparatus main body in an attachable/detachable manner as a replacement part (hereinafter, the unit is referred to as “cleaning unit”). In that case, an opening is formed in the cleaning unit to allow a waste toner conveyance path in the cleaning unit to communicate with the waste bottle.
The cleaning unit is attached to and detached from the apparatus main body. As a result, when the cleaning unit is detached from the apparatus main body, it is necessary to prevent the waste toner remaining in the cleaning unit from leaking from the opening.
There is known a conventional technology in which a shutter member is provided to open and close the opening. Specifically, an end of a casing of the cleaning unit on the downstream side in the conveyance path is formed in a shape of a cylinder, and the above-mentioned opening is formed in a lower part of the cylindrical portion. On the other hand, the shutter member is formed in the shape of a cup to be externally fitted with the cylindrical portion, and has an opening of a shape corresponding to the opening of the casing. In addition, the shutter member is configured to be rotated in the circumferential direction between a closing position and an opening position, wherein at the closing position, the opening of the casing is closed by the shutter member, and at the opening position, the opening of the casing overlaps with the opening of the shutter member, and the waste toner conveyance path in the cleaning unit is communicated with the waste bottle.